RWBY: The Blue Demon
by Rein Tenebres
Summary: A rogue witch banished Kirito out of Underworld at the end of the war, and into the foreign place known as Remnant. Now two years later, Kirito is ready to find a way home, even if he has to solve Remnants problems to do it.
1. Chapter 1

RWBY: The Blue Demon

Premise: Kirito was stranded in Remnant following the event of the Underworld War. After finally getting his bearings, he was ready to find what he needed.

Trailer: Blue

A park in Vale

Kirito groaned as he slipped out of the tree he had been using as an impromptu lodge for the day. He scratched at the stubble on his chin before reaching over his shoulders to check that he still had his two swords on him. Slung over his right shoulder was a handle pure black in color, match by it's sheath. This was his main-hand sword, Night Sky. The structure of the sword slung over his left was different. Blue steel pommel with royal blue wrapping on the handle. However, instead of a guard was a revolver mechanism with windows in each chamber that glowed a light blue color, and a trigger lever went down alongside the handle. The sheath was also royal blue in color. This was his off-hand sword, Blue Rose.

His outfit was ragged, and far more travel worn than anything he had worn previously. Keeping true to his black theme, he wore black boots that were scratched up. His cargo pants were originally black, but had faded slightly to a dark gray. The pockets on the sides were bulging slightly with ammunition and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). It was late summer, so it was still quite warm. As such, he had a similar faded, dark-gray color jacket tied around his waist. His under shirt was a different color from his usual attire, however. It was his one piece of clothing that he kept in good repair.

It was a light blue shirt with a simple icon that looked like a blue rose over his left breast. He wore it proudly in memory of his late friend. A set of light armor was strapped over his upper torso as well. Segments of plates held together with some cord. One plate covered his right breast and sternum, two plates guarded his shoulders. The plate on his right shoulder had an icon that looked like a jagged cross with a circle segmenting each point. This icon in honor of the people that he had protected before finding himself in this land. This place known as Remnant.

Two years ago, Kirito had been aiding the forces of Humanity and the Dark Territory in a war for survival against the machinations of the final vestiges of Laughing Coffin. After it had concluded, Kirito was hit by a teleportation spell of some sort by a rampant witch from the Dark Territory, and found himself stranded in Remnant.

He had ascertained that he still had access to the System Commands, and thus was still within the Soul Translator simulation. The problem came with the fact that he had no idea how to use the System Console to teleport. Not to mention, he was pretty certain that the spell was Incarnation System in nature to begin with, meaning it was derived from the rogue witch's own mind and intent, rather than an easily reversible System Command.

He spent two years slowly building up what he needed to officially exist in this world. It was a pretty stunning world, if he had to admit it. The culture was far more similar to his own on the surface. Skyscrapers, cars, guns and everything in between. When he first arrived, he only had the shattered remains of his best friend's sword, and his own sword. He had learned about the nature of weapons in this place, and reforged both weapons into ones that would work here, as well as honor their origins.

Then he learned about a new power that these people had discovered. These people discovered a power similar to the Release Recollection of a sword in Underworld, however, it was for the individual. This power was known as Semblance. These people could unlock the nature of their own existence, and turn it into some sort of almost mutant super power. Naturally, after learning about it, he spent nearly six months working on accessing the Soul Power known as Aura, which was actually an individuals Incarnation, and an aspect of their Semblance. At first, he was uncertain what his Semblance did.

This was because he was alone most of the time. Then he discovered the truth on an unsanctioned Hunt from an outer village. He paired with an unlicensed Huntsman to go take out a pack of Ursa that had been seen making their way to the village. It went well at first, until Kirito and his partner noticed something. His partner was losing Aura without using it. Kirito had a clue why. His Semblance was draining the Aura from his partner. But it was too late. Without his Aura, his partner did not survive the surprise attack of a Deathstalker from the shadows, the stinger jutting out his chest and splattering his blood on Kirito. Since then, Kirito only ever took on missions solo.  
He instantly knew the nature of his Semblance. It was a part of his soul that he really should've anticipated. Somewhere, deep inside his heart, Kirito believed that anyone who was with him would die. It happened first with Sachi in Sword Art Online, then it happened again at the end of his time in the Underworld. Asuna had dived in with another Soul Translator to try and save him.

Yes, she saved him. The cost was PoH himself cutting her down. Death in the Soul Translator… meant the death of your very soul. Asuna was gone. This first year of his life in Remnant found Kirito once again on a suicide march. He took on every mission he could outside the main cities after hearing about how the outer villages rarely got the help they needed from Huntsman. He filled that role in their lives. However, it was also with a grudging respect that they accepted him, for he had made his Semblance public.

With his blue Aura, cursed Semblance, and his mighty prowess on the field, the now twenty-one year old man bore the title of The Blue Demon among the outer villages. Eventually, once he was certain that he had gathered enough money and notoriety, Kirito found his way to the nearest main city, intent on finding as much knowledge of this world as he could. Which all brought him to this day.

He had heard that the host of one of the bars here was very knowledgeable about the goings-on of different parties around the city. Rather than finding a hotel to nap in till evening, he elected to nap in a nicely shaded tree.

Scratching the scruff on his chin, Kirito idly thought about going to a barber before he was done with this city. His black hair had grown as well, reaching past his shoulder. He kept it bound into a somewhat ugly ponytail, as he was always too distracted to actually try to deal with it.

Eventually he found himself at the entrance to the bar he was looking for. It was quiet inside. The only vehicle parked on the curb was a black and yellow motorcycle.

 _'_ Oh yeah, motorcycles exist here. Maybe I'll try to get one before leaving town.'

Lightly batting at the door with his left hand, Kirito walked in and saw what most certainly was the remains of a bar fight. A highly destructive one. Scattered all over the ground were uniformed thugs who were groaning in pain. There were a couple girls who were knocked out too. However, what drew his attention was a very yellow girl manhandling the very bartender he had come to see. Before he could announce himself, the yellow girl decked the bartender, knocking him out.

"Now why did you have to go and do that? I needed to talk to the guy." His voice was a little scratchy from disuse. It did take him a few weeks to get here from that mountain top village he was last at. The girl's flowing blonde hair swayed as she quickly looked his way. Her eyes was lit in a red color. It was the sign of a shift in relation to Aura being applied to something, which meant her Semblance, whatever it was, was already active.

The girl grinned in both excitement and vitriol.

"Now, you look like someone who would actually know where my mom is."

The girl cocked her arms, and the yellow gauntlets on her wrists let out clicking noises, as what was likely to be some sort of Dust round was chambered into them. She was ready to fight. Kirito reach up and grabbed the hilt of Night Sky without actually drawing it. Subtly, Kirito activated his Aura, letting a blue glow surround him. Thankfully, his Semblance did not have a physical indicator without one of those handy Aura Readers that Huntsman carried in their Smartphone Scroll things. When it came to combat against other people, his curse turned into a blessing, where he could subdue people without truly harming them.

"Normally, this would be where I say that I left her in my bed this morning, but really, why would I know where your mom is?"

The girl growled and swung her arms behind her, firing the Fire Dust shotgun shells out of her gauntlets, letting her explode towards him. She reared a fist back and, with a new round chambered, began to swing a Kirito.

'Clever use of physics to amplify combat maneuvers. However…'

Kirito drew Night Sky, and twisted it down so that the edge of the blade hooked into the oncoming gauntlet's joints, and swung it outwards, spinning the yellow girl away and effectively parrying what amounted to being a shotgun charge.

"Can we just calm down and chat? Or do you have to beat people to ask them questions?"

The girl continued her onslaught, with Kirito continuing to parry each attempt with only Night Sky. Yellow then pulled a maneuver he didn't expect. As he went to parry another strike, the girl's other hand pointed up, and fired a blast, forcing her below his blade's path, and re-positioning herself to a position that Kirito was already familiar with. She was now ducked down, with her right fist prepared to fire up, inside his guard, and into his lower jaw. She had him cornered in this bout.

Or so she thought. Kirito had fought with members of the Pugilist Guild at the end of the war, and was ready. A sharp jerk of his knee cracked into Yellow's face, sending her flying backwards, which was further assisted by the premature firing of her shotgun blast. With a crack, she hit the bar. Kirito relaxed a moment before the girl got back up, with an even brighter gleam in her red eyes.

'Wait… the impact fed her Semblance, but what is her Semblance?'

The girl sprinted back after him, and reared another fist. Her fighting style was predictable. Acting on a hunch, Kirito put more force into his parry, and was rewarded with feeling like he just batted at a wrecking ball with Night Sky. However, the pitch black sword remained unblemished from the assault. She could store and return kinetic force. She was basically Newton's Law in a nutshell, or maybe a firecracker.

"So, want to tell me what the deal is with your mom?"

The girl bristled.

"I'm the one asking the questions here!"

Kirito noticed that her eyes were no longer red, and were now a normal violet in color.

'Ah…'

Kirito sheathed his sword, which he knew would irritate the girl, and turned off his Aura. With a roar, the girl launched herself at him once more, only for Kirito to pluck her wrist mid flight, and bring her into a tight bear hug.

"Now now, just calm down. The fighting is over, alright?"

"What!? Let me go! Why am I so weak!"

She struggled with futility in his grasp.

"You're out of Aura. Continued conflict is now a very real threat to your life. Please just calm down and talk to me normally."

Yang slowly stopped wiggling in his arms and he could here some quick, short hiccuping coming from the girl in his arms. Kirito mentally groaned at the familiar situation before sitting down against a wall, with the girl still in his embrace. She was pressing her face into his chest, and he started patting the top of her head while idly noting how soft and well maintained the fierce girl's hair was.

"Yang Xiao Long." He heard her mumble into his chest.

"Well, you sure know how to greet people with a Yang, don't you?" He could here the girl giggle in between her sobbing.

Something odd he noted about this world was that there were vestiges of naming conventions from all around the real world in use in this world. Such as the Chinese named girl in his arms, but this world spoke English universally, and had no foreign language in it's history. It boggled his mind, and it was one of the things he had been trying to learn.

"My mom's name is Raven Branwen, do you know here?"

Kirito hummed while continuing to tactfully not acknowledge her crying to her.

"Branwen, huh. I've heard rumors from villages outside the city of a bandit tribe known as the Branwen Tribe. I was tasked once with going to arrest or scare off their whole camp, but they had packed up and gone before I arrived at where they were supposed to be. I just settled it as a successful mission, since they weren't a threat to the village anymore."

He felt Yang's face shift against his chest, and he looked down. Her eyes were bloodshot, but a fierce look returned to them.

"Please tell me, when was that!? Where!?"

Kirito hummed in thought, before frowning.

"That information probably isn't very useful to you now, but… That was a little over a year ago, at a village about thirty miles north of Atlas, in the tundra wastelands."

"I… I see…"

Her face shuffled down into his chest again.

"So… what were you here to find?"

"I'm interested in learning about the origins of Remnant. The myths, the legends, the history. Everything."

A movement in the corner of his eyes had Kirito looked at a bird that was standing outside a window sill and watching him. Up till now, the black raven had been looking into the establishment like a normal bird would, facing what it was looking at with only one side of it's face. Ravens were curious creatures, sometimes at their own risk, so he ignored it. But now, now it was looking directly at him, with both eyes. He stared back for a moment before the girl hummed thoughtfully in his arms.

"I haven't really paid attention to those in a while, but when I was young, my step-mom once told me this story called The Four Maidens. It's just a fairy tale though."

Kirito nodded in acknowledgment.

"Tell me, do you believe in fairy tales, Yang?"

The raven took flight immediately.


	2. Chapter 2

RWBY: The Blue Demon

Premise: Having finished with Yang, Kirito decides it's time to take a tour of the city, and prepare for a new journey. However, fate works in strange ways.

Chapter 2: Red vs Blue

The store's bells chimed as he closed the door behind him. Kirito brought a hand up to his chin to feel his smooth, angular chin. It had been a while since he had not had facial hair. He preferred not having any for sure. He also got his hair cut down to his normal messy mop of raven hair.

After having heard the tale of the Four Maidens from Yang, she had gotten him to trade numbers on their Scrolls and made him promise to spar with her again some time in the future. Now he was out looking for a Dust Shop of some kind to refill his supplies before he skipped town.

Easier said than done, Kirito thought. Despite the bustling night life that Vale had, every Dust Shop he's found was already closed from dusk, with both the doors and windows barred up. It made sense, sort of. Dust was nearly a complete replacement for fossil fuels in the civilization. That was almost singularly because of their magic enhancement properties.

Fire Duty replaced oil. Wind Dust didn't necessarily replace anything, but it permitted extra-physical capabilities, such as keeping their aircraft in the air. Lightning Dust powered entire cities. The effects of Ice Dust produced distilled water. However, all of this Dust was also weaponized by this society. The same person who had an intent to refresh the ice dust of their refrigerator or freezer could just as easily turn around and stab someone with it, and turn them into a human popsicle.

Because of that, the material was almost completely government handled. Public sale of the material was treated as if they are straight up selling ammunition for firearms. And for the most part…

That's exactly what it was to these people.

Kirito observed as a man in very stereotypical thug attire crashed through the window of the only open dust shop he's been able to find. Riding said man like a surf board was a girl who was wearing a red themed outfit. Her cloak billowed behind her as the thug's body scraped across the ground to a stop. Three more thugs and what decidedly must've been their leader, who wore a white suit and black bowl cap, with fringes of orange hair poking out of it stepped out of the whole the window made.

Kirito thought to help before he saw the red girl stand up… and her matching red weapon go through an impressive transformation sequence to turn into a rather scary looking, full sized scythe. Deciding she was clearly prepared to handle this, he stepped into the dust shop through the door.

He walked up to the scared man who was standing stiffly at the front counter.

"Good evening, sir. Could I get a box of .223 Ice Rounds, please?" Kirito pulled out his credit card and passed it to the stunned man as he got the box of requested ammunition from under the counter. Kirito let the man do his thing as he drew the sword from over his left shoulder. While he was aware of the fondness for transformable weapons in this civilization, he didn't feel a need for it. Of course, he did recognize the need for a ranged option, which is why Kirito reforged the Blue Rose Sword to accommodate the use of Dust Rounds.

He clicked a button on the handle, and the hand-guard chamber opened up to reveal a revolve-type loading chamber. He slipped eight rounds from from the .223 box into the loader and shut it, allowed a blue glow to emanate from the power display on the side of the chamber. Pocketing the rest of the ammo and reclaiming his card, Kirito stepped out of the store to see the generic thugs already down for the count. However, the leader had his cane – there was a gun sight at the tip of the cane!

Kirito moved. He sprinted around to where he could get between the man and girl, and sliced the dust round that had been fired in two, allowing two iced over chunks of dust to scatter away from the combatants.

The thug leader flinched before scrambling to climb a ladder to the top of a nearby building. The store owner came out and the red girl addressed him.

"You okay if I go after him?"

"Uh-huh."

Kirito got to observe the girl perform an impressive display of using the firearm aspect of her scythe to propel herself up the building after the criminal. Kirito hummed in appreciation and activated his own aura. He crouched down, and let the Incarnation System handle what he needed next.

He jumped.

"Hey!" Kirito heard the red girl shout.

"Persistent." was the reply from the criminal, who had only just gotten to the other end of the roof top. One of Remnant's hovercraft made itself known with the dull roar of its engines, and raised from below the building's view line. A loading ramp extended from the open hatch on it's left side for the criminal to use. A spotlight briefly blinded to pair of pursuers as the man got on board the aircraft.

The criminal turned to address the pair with a large chunk of Fire Dust held up in his hand. "End of the line, Red!" He tossed his dust crystal at the red girl, and leveled his cane at the object. Picking up on the intent of the criminal, Kirito repeated his gift. He dashed forward, and sliced at the oncoming bullet with Blue Rose, once again letting the two iced over pieces of the bullet scatter harmlessly over the rooftop. With his right hand, he grabbed the dust crystal out of the air before it could impact the roof.

From off to the side, Kirito watched as a blond haired woman with a riding crop seemed to fire off purple traces that looked like magic bolts at the Bullhead aircraft. Each hit did a powerful job of rocking the craft that would've grounded any real world aircraft. As it was, the dust powered aircraft was able to maintain it's power while the power supply stayed intact. The criminal rushed inside and a new person stepped froward to the entrance of the Bullhead.

Kirito observed as her dress began to light up with fire dust, and her hands were coated with fire. The witch-woman continued to sling her magic bolts at them, while the red girl converted her scythe into a sniper rifle and began targeting the engines of the aircraft. The witch-woman changed her stance, and slung her riding crop once more. This time, a field temporarily appeared in the sky above the Bullhead, which gave way to a sudden storm. The storm unleashed massive chunks of hail at the Bullhead, piercing parts of it.

The flame witch performed some motions with her hands to generate more fire, then condense it all into a single mass of white fire. Kirito clucked his tongue. This was going to get too dangerous, too fast. He activated his Semblance, and enhanced it's effects with the Incarnation System. His blue aura became more ominous as the woman's fire completely puttered out, and the witch-woman's magic came to a complete stop. Noticing that the red girl was about to fire another shot into the torn, gaping hole of the Bullheads left engine with what had to have been a .50 cal sniper rifle, Kirito flipped the grip he had on Blue Rose, and stabbed it into the ground directly in front of the sniper rifle, letting the next bullet be sliced in two, with the two pieces icing over and scattering off to the sides.

With Kirito having effectively turned the area into a non-aggression zone, the Bullhead tore off from the fight, and flew away. The witch-woman seemed unsure of how to handle what just happened, while the red girl rounded on Kirito.

"Hey! You helped them get away!"

Kirito sighed and was about to respond. "It's more-" He didn't get to finish his sentence. While Kirito had gotten used to fighting the people of Remnant, he had learned that they pretty much relied on their Semblance in combat. This girl didn't seem to match the norm.

Red switched her weapon back to scythe mode, and launched herself at him with the recoil of another .50 cal blast. Kirito frowned as he thought about the unseen ramifications of this fighting style that the girl used.

It seemed he didn't succeed in fully draining this particular person's aura, either. With a burst of red rose petals, the Red girl was suddenly moving towards him faster than even her own .50 cal bullets could travel. The scythe was poised attempt to bisect him.

Kirito had let his guard down. And now, he was about to pay for it. The inside of the scythe made contact with his aura cloaked body, and tore a chunk of it as he was caught in the crook of the scythe, and slung around. The scythe shifted to a spear form for a moment, allowing the scythe to let go of it's captured prey, and launched Kirito over the building, and into the wall of the next building over, before he fell four stories and impacted the ground.

Kirito groaned as he stood back up, Blue Rose still firmly held in hand. While he didn't take any real damage, he certainly felt the impacts, and it hurt like hell. He guessed that he lost all of his recently drained aura, as well as twenty percent of his own aura in that one hit. The girl was clearly going to be a powerful warrior on day. He unsheathed the sword from over his right shoulder, and changed stance. Both blades in hand, he was ready to intercept the next attack.

The Red girl jumped off the building after him, and used the force of another .50 cal bullet being shot to slow her decent, and landed on the ground before resuming her own stance. Just as she was about to take another pass at Kirito, both of their weapons glowed purple. Kirito felt a force yank his swords upwards, but being stubborn, he held onto them as his feet dangled in the air. The Red girl, however, had her scythe yanked out of her hands, and hover just outside her reach above her. Red made a show of hopping up and down trying to grab her weapon while whining.

"Hey! Give her back!"

The witch-woman stepped away from the ladder, and adjust the glasses on her face.

"You two are under arrest."

Vale Police Department Interrogation Room

Kirito and the other girl, now known as Ruby Rose, sat across from the witch-woman. Said woman was now known as Glynda Goodwitch, according the Ruby. Also according to Ruby, Glynda was a famous Huntsman Instructor at Beacon Academy. Kirito reluctantly allowed them to confiscate his weapons after Glynda had tried to shake him loose of his swords, and even tried splitting the two swords apart, making Kirito have to overpower her semblance to keep them close enough together to be able to keep holding onto them.

That being said, he still had his sacred art for weapon summoning primed if he decided he needed them urgently.

"You two are in big trouble. You, Ruby Rose, engaged in combat in a population center without authority!" Turned her eyes of Kirito, she assailed him next.

"And you, mister Kirito, aided and abetted the escape-" Kirito held his hand up, as he would in school when wanting permission to speak to a teacher. Said teacher being a teacher took this as a slight from the adult man-child in front of her. "What?"

"Really, if this was my call, I would've had you in this chair, rather than me. You do realize that the two of you were about to drop a Bullhead in the middle of a population center, right? Would you feel better if I let you achieve your goal of trying to capture those criminals in exchange for some fifty plus lives? Really..." Kirito let his aura subtly leak from his form, and formed the shape of his old nemesis, The Gleam Eyes, and projected it. The woman should've seen the image of a goat demon overlapping Kirito's.

"If you want to tell me that would be worth it, I will mark you an enemy of not only the people, but myself as well. I will hunt you."

Glynda shuddered, and Kirito recognized the signs of terror starting to settle into her eyes as he began to comprehend exactly what she had been prepared to do, and that Kirito was not bluffing. Her heart began to race. Ruby, next to Kirito, wasn't aware of the demonic intimidation that Kirito had just used, but still had her head down, behaving properly scolded.

Glynda was taking rapid, short breathes as the terror in her mind was about to get the best of her before the sudden shock of the room's door being opened, and seeing two familiar people enter aided her in getting her act together.

Ruby looked up and started vibrating in her seat like a child on a sugar high.

"Uncle Qrow and Professor Ozpin! What are you two doing here?"

The man she called Ozpin had grayed hair, black coat, and green scarf. Spectacles rested on the bridge of his nose. Under his armpit was a tablet sized scroll device, and in his hands were a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, which he set in front of Ruby, who began to greedily shovel it all into her stomach.

Kirito was almost certain that if she could have an IV drip for cookie dough and milk, Ruby wouldn't think once before getting that needle stuck in her, with how she was consuming that food. Ozpin took the tablet from under his harm and started swiping on it.

"Ruby Rose. You have silver eyes."

Ruby paused to look at him strangely for a moment before resuming her most certainly healthy meal.

"So, I understand for mister Qrow that he taught you how to use the most dangerous weapon ever made?"

"Uh-huh! He taught me and now I'm all like WHOO! WHAAA! HIYAA!" During her display, she had her hands out in karate motions while striking the air. Ozpin had been playing the footage of her fight with the thugs, and while impressive, it posed a problem for Kirito. He reached over and paused the video on a certain scene.

"Dangerous is right. Were there any casualties from this girl firing .50 caliber rounds down these populated streets?"

This time it was Ruby's turn to fix her gaze at the footage, and did indeed see herself frozen in a still image of her sniper firing straight down the road, where she could make out silhouettes of other people in the background.

This time Qrow spoke up. "Thankfully, no." He paused to take a swig from his flask of what was likely alcohol of some sort. Kirito could smell it. "Police checked the area, and no one was injured. Each bullet only found it's way into the sides of buildings or the street. You're lucky that no one was injured. You're doubly lucky that Professor Ozpin here was kind of enough to take the bill for the damages to the city. Brat! I told you that you are only supposed to fight like against Grimm!"

Ozpin interjected.

"So, you want to be a Huntsman at my academy, do you?"

Ruby's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Would I ever!

"Okay. Glynda, if you could take miss Rose and get her paperwork handled."

The woman made a "humph" noise before doing as told, taking Ruby with her. With the three men being all the remained in the room, the atmosphere took a dip.

"So, why is The Blood Demon of Remnant in Vale?"


	3. Chapter 3

RWBY: The Blue Demon

Premise: A meeting between friends in the Underworld occurs. A new(?) piece finds it's way onto the board of Remnant. A criminal is missing. A sister becomes worried.

Chapter 3: Cattle Prod

Underworld – Dark Territory – Dark Arts Guild

"Had you been born on our side, I'm unsure even _he_ could have prevented us from winning the war, My Lady."

The new Guild Leader of the Dark Arts Guild had flowing green hair and wore a pitch black ball gown. Resting on her nose were silver-framed rectangular glasses that framed her luminescent red eyes. She was lounging on luxurious red velvet chair with a grimoire resting on her lap. Her overall image was that of a studious noble.

"I wish you would call me by my name, C. I may be the standing leader of of the United Territories, but we have become friends since I had started visiting your Guild."

Ever since the war, a mixing of cultures had been exploding between the two territories. To be included was the gradual merging of the Holy Church and Dark Arts Guild. To facilitate what was now becoming known as the Mystic Arts was a university campus still under construction just outside the now thriving village of Rulid, the stand-in leader's home village.

"Of course, Alice. Truly, I'm jealous of your aptitude for our arts. I can only wish to have such talent in the Sacred Arts."

Alice sat across from C in a similar chair. She had changed over the last two years. Her features had streamlined as what was left of her baby fat burned away. In their place was the image of royalty. Instead of her old Integrity Knight armor, she had commissioned for a uniform from the Elite Swordsman Academy to be made for her, since she had taken up instructing there a couple hours a day. Her personal flair for the uniform was to have hers the burnt orange color of autumn leaves, and she kept her Integrity Knight gauntlets on.

Many men had tried to court her since _his_ disappearance. Many more still acknowledged the missing leader of the new world as the one she would wait till death for. Despite _him_ having been missing for two years, Alice refused to allow him to be marked killed-in-action at any official capacity. Of course, she wasn't working on blind faith alone. She had seen what the rogue witch had done. That was why she was here.

"The Dark Arts are derived from the Incarnation System, beyond having prior training with the Integrity Knights for some fundamental applications, the Incarnation System is driven by the will of the user. I have my will. I have my purpose."

C coyly smiled at Alice.

"Of course, _that man_ has touched many lives. None more so than yourself, I expect. I imagine it shouldn't be too much longer before you will be able to reproduce that spell. How much longer until our new Imperial Family has it's first heir, I wonder." C teased. Her right hand was hiding the devious grin that she grew from teasing her friend.

For Alice's part, she had stiffened up and her skin flushed red.

"How crude. That's not…"

Alice cut herself off. The reason was known to both.

"So honest, dear Alice. Even without The Curse, you're a paragon of virtue. You two will be re-united again, I'm sure of it."

Remnant – International Railroad

"I'm sorry, Adam."

"Blake!"

The black-clothed cat faunus whipped her sword/sub-machine gun to the side, taking the connecting pin of the train cars with it, and throwing it away. The car with the nicely dressed bull faunus standing on it began to slow to a halt while the one with the cat faunus continued it's way. Adam snarled at the expression of sheer despair that she watched him with.

"Aww. Show's over?"

Adam spun around to see someone new standing on the rear train car with him. The man was tall, and the only identifiable features he had were the tattered brown canvas poncho and hood that hid his face from view, and the crude meat clever that was still hanging by a cord at his waist. The man's gloved hands came up and begin clapping.

"It's so very disappointing that the show ended there, but it's not all bad. That black girl, Blake was it? I wish she stayed on your side too. I was already writing the script for the next play, and now I have to rewrite it!"

Despite the words being those of someone who should be upset, he really didn't. Really, he sounded more pleased, somehow.

"Who the fuck are you?"

The mysterious stranger raised a gloved hand and wagged his finger.

"You don't need to know the director's name just yet, my cute little beef cake."

Adam saw red.

"You're dead, human!"

The bull faunus drew his katana and leaped at the cloaked man. He brought his katana low to the side, and swiped across, hoping to bisect the man at the waist. Before he could make contact, however, the man reacted faster that he could comprehend, and brought the meat clever up to parry the attack with one hand before using his off-hand to back slap Adam across the face with enough force to knock him off the car. After a brief thud as his back made contact with the packed earth, he scrambled up and readied his sword again.

"It seems you still have some training before you can play your part."

"I would never do a human's bidding!"

"Ah, but you see, you already have, already are, and will forever continue to do so, until the day you die. See, I know you so well, that I also know that no matter how hard you tried, you could never defy me. It's almost like you're the most willing member of my organization!"

Alarm bells were going off in Adam's mind.

"Are you with Cinder?"

"Nope, thanks for the name though. I'll have to see how I can use them, too."

Adam grimaced and got into an iai stance while focusing his aura into himself. His sword sheathed, hand at the blade, and Aura condensed, he prepared to release his Semblance.

"Ooh goodie, are you about to show me one of those nifty Semblance things?"

With a roar, Adam unleashed his Semblance imbued iai strike at the cloaked figure.

"Die!"

Time stopped. No, time didn't stop. It took a moment for Adam to realize that he was severing the man's head from his body. Impossible! No-one could track that attack! Why wasn't it done!? Adam observed the condition. His blade was out and lined up against the man's neck, but nothing blocked it. It was like he just simply stopped. He went to withdraw and regain his bearings, but noticed a problem. He couldn't move. What!? His eyes darted around as he tried to figure out why he was paralyzed until his eyes rested on the eyes of the mysterious man, who was grinning with such insane glee that Adam began to feel fear.

The man's eyes were glowing a sickly green color.

"So very nifty, these Semblance things are, poor little heifer."

The man push-kicked Adam, who unceremoniously crumpled to the ground, and remained unable to move.

"What did you do to me!"

"Do you like it? It's my own Semblance! I call it the Eye of the Basilisk! Pretty trendy sounding, right? I make eye contact, and you are paralyzed immediately! It works a little weird, but hey, no more having to go out of my way to get paralysis potions!"

The man fished out a long rod with a chunk of shaped fire dust at the end of it. It was some sort of design, but Adam wasn't positioned to be able to make out the details. The man kicked Adam's left hand off to the side and crouched down. Pulling off the glove, Adam positioned the hand face down, with the back exposed to the sky.

"How do you like your steak? I prefer medium-well, but I imagine you would prefer it as rare as possible."

Adam struggled to get the words out.

"Fuck… you…"

The man wagged his finger again.

"Uh-uh-uh! That's now way to talk to the director of the show, beef-"

The man cut himself off as he began laughing hysterically to some joke inside his head.

"Oh man, that was a good one!"

Without further ceremony, this man, this Director flipped a switch on the stick, and suddenly Adam became fully aware of what exactly the device was.

A cattle prod.

"Go… fuck… yourself!"

"Ladies, and gentlemen! Without further ado, I give you the latest member of my organization!"

The searing red-hot cattle prod was rammed into Adam's left hand, and he not even the paralysis Semblance could inhibit the screams of the man.

"Graaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Ahahahah! It's show time!"

Smoke and the smell of charred flesh burst forth from Adam's hand as he endured the pain and humiliation of this human branding him like livestock. Before long, the cattle prod was lifted from Adam's hand, and the man sniffed at the passed out bull faunus.

"Aww, it patty caked itself."

Then he grinned.

"Oh well!"

He walked off, leaving the man passed out in the clearing. An angry red and bloody image of a coffin with a grinning face on it left to cool under the darkening night sky.

Underworld, Tower of the Axiom Church, 100th Floor

Alice groaned before closing the laptop and setting aside the paperwork she had been going over. Before Kirito's disappearance, he had been hard at work with revolutionizing the technology, science, and education of the United Territories. She had accepted the strange knowledge since she had learned about Kirito's origin as an Overworlder. So many strange but fantastic concepts, and she was excited to see where it would all go. Naturally, most of his projects reached a stale-mate once the rogue witch banished him from their realm.

Among those projects was one that was taking some severe work on her part was the development of a special type of vehicle that was intended to take the place of the now extinct dragon species. He had originally called them "jets", but after she had displayed her naked confusion on her face at the term, Kirito had rethought, and then called them "machine dragons" or "mechadragons" for short. She still didn't quite understand. Since then, on top of her duties as the new "Administrator" of the United Territories, she had been studying every bit of the educational material that Kirito had left behind. In some respects, it was easy to understand.

She could understand physics and what was called electrical engineering. She was currently unmatched when it came to computer programming, as the concepts of it were nearly identical to the processes of Sacred Arts. In fact, she had advanced Sacred Arts to an entirely new level by applying the concepts of computer programming to them.

What that left was the stuff she had a harder time wrapping her mind around. That generally fell to chemistry and metallurgy. Kirito had said there would be problems in that respect because he had discovered that the periodic table of elements from the Overworld didn't exactly line up with the elements that existed in the Underworld.

Alice had left that research to others who were tirelessly working at charting out their known elements, and comparing their composition, effects, and reactions against the catalog of information Kirito had left for them. Kirito had told Alice that he had been getting ready to move to another country in the Overworld to attend the world's most renowned college for mechatronics and robotics before this Underworld incident had occurred to him. With everything that Kirito had taught her people, she had no doubts that he belonged to such a prestigious institution.

Alice's further thoughts were cut off by a rough knocking on her office door.

"Come in!"

From the great door that was crafted of the Gigas Cedar from Rulid Village entered a young adult girl with brown hair and blue eyes. Her eyes expressed uncertainty.

Kirito had returned to training Ronye after the war, leaving behind his Aincrad Style with her. Since his disappearance, Ronye had dived into her training like a woman possessed, and become Ronye Synthesis Fourty-six, the latest of the new System Knight order. With the Dark Knight and Integrity Knights having joined together in harmony on Kirito's direction, the System Knights were formed, and they were considered the hero's for the entire world. Ronye bore the colors of her own hero, Kirito. Her pitch-black armor and cloth had earned her some ire among her peers, as it was considered almost heresy to be using Kirito's colors. Her status as his old valet and apprentice generally relieved her of that stress.

"Come, sit down, Ronye. Tell me what bothers you."

"Ma'am! I-"

"Alice. We fought side-by-side in the war to save Kirito together early in the war. Don't forget that. We're comrades."

"Yes, ma- Yes, Alice. I've just returned from my patrols of the wastes to the west of the Dark Territory and discovered something concerning."

Alice was alert. The zone Ronye was speaking of was the battlefield for the war. The power of gods had irreversibly changed that landscape, and it was considered a dead zone to all who lived in Underworld.

"What did you find, Ronye?"

"That tree, the Gigas Cedar sprout?"

Alice's breath hitched. The image of another girl's chestnut hair falling, and dying, in front of her came unbidden to the forefront of her mind.

' _Never let him be alone. Please._ '

"Please no..."

"I'm sorry. It's gone. It wasn't just cut down, either. It's missing all the way down the earth to the very last root. I'm afraid that man may have..."

"No!"

Alice slammed her desk, and her shout propagated throughout the room, the floor, and perhaps even the entire tower. In response, two other System Knights hastily opened her door and stepped inside, hands at their swords. Alice knew these two, but they were fresh from the Sword Mastery Academy, and hadn't been involved in the war.

"Stand down. Alright, listen up. Start spreading the word to the law enforcement agencies and the other System Knights that a notorious criminal is on the loose, and the take any current issues as a maximum possible threat with immense risk. Go!"

Remnant, Atlas Military Academy

Winter Schnee had just waved off her younger sister, Weiss Schnee, as she had boarded the airship to Vale. Her superior had been keeping her up to date on what was going on in Vale, since she was curious. Certainly not because she was a caring sister, but because she was merely curious. Qrow had also been messaging her about the situation. The big one being being the text she had received from him not five minutes ago. The Blue Demon of Remnant, Kirito, had been taken into custody, and was being transferred to Beacon Academy at that very moment.


End file.
